In modern casinos, a network of controllers and monitors may be configured to track gambling activity on a casino's various gaming machines (e.g., slot machine, video poker, video blackjack, etc.). Some of the gaming machines may be configured according to the Slot Accounting System (SAS) 6.0 standard to implement cashless gaming, otherwise known as “ticket in ticket out” (TITO) gaming. Prior to the implementation of such systems, casinos were forced to implement gambling promotions by giving bills and coins to gamblers for use in the casino. Since tracking of bills and coins is undesirably difficult and unreliable, gambling promotion funds may have been used for non-gambling activities. Gamblers may have even pocketed the promotional funds that were meant to be gambled in the casino running the promotion.
This problem has been addressed, to some extent, by current cashless gaming systems, which allow casinos to control the use of promotional funds by disbursing promotional gaming vouchers that may only be redeemed at gaming machines in participating casinos. Accordingly, gamblers may only use their promotional gaming vouchers at gaming machines in the participating casinos, whereby any money that they win from playing the promotional gaming vouchers are credited back to the gaming voucher. Some gaming machines are able to segregate, on the gaming voucher itself, the promotional value of the gaming voucher from any cash value accrued through deposits on the gaming voucher or jackpots credited to the gaming voucher. However, these gaming machines are undesirably expensive and have not yet replaced older cashless gaming machines, which are unable to segregate promotional gaming values from cash values on the gaming vouchers.
Accordingly, gamblers using the older cashless gaming machines are able to cash out their promotional gaming vouchers and thereby pocket any remaining promotional value on the gaming voucher in addition to any accrued cash value. Indeed, gamblers may even choose to cash out their vouchers for the promotional funds without ever gambling at any of the gaming machines. This, again, leads to the undesirable pocketing and/or unrestricted use of the casino's promotional funds. Furthermore, casinos are unable to definitively track the usage of promotional funds and are, therefore, unable to claim promotional expenses associated with the disbursement of such funds as marketing expenses on their taxes. This creates undesirable losses and inefficiency associated with casino gambling promotions.